It is not enough to issue ration books if there
is no food. It is not enough to import food or to stock distribution depots
if people cannot afford to buy the food. In all famines prices rise, so
the poor cannot buy food and they starve, while other people sell all their
possessions to buy food impoverishing themselves. For this reason famine
relief measures typically include provisions like the following, which were
laid down in the Bengal Famine Code and which were applied in Bengal in
1941, 1942 and 1943. (See Bengal Famine Code (1895), Famine Commission (1945a
p69). See also K.C. Ghost(1944) for similar relief measures being used in
Bombay in 1629-30.)

Gratuitous relief - supply of gruel, uncooked
food grains and cash as public assistance to those with no money and unable
to work.

Wages in kind or cash paid for work on famine
relief work such as building roads, dams or canals. The work required was
according to the physical condition of the recipient, and he was paid by
the day, not according to his output. Non-manual jobs were provided for
"respectable men" who suffered from the famine and appropriate
jobs were given to artisans.

Agricultural loans to prevent small farmers from
impoverishing themselves and selling up their land, animals or equipment.
These were earmarked for
- maintenance (in kind or cash)
- purchase of cattle (in cash)
- agricultural operations (in kind or cash)

Loans to artisans, as their businesses suffer
when their customers have to spend their income on foods alone. They also
find it difficult to buy raw materials.

Loans to weavers for raw materials, and subsidised
prices for their product.

Sale of food grains at subsidised prices to the
poor, in order to protect those who had allowed for normal prices.

It will be noted that money was given rather than
grain in order to reduce the costs of administering distribution to isolated
recipients. The same is being done in Ethiopia today (Harden, 1985). This
might be appropriate in a purely redistributional, Sen-type, famine. However
the possible effects on prices even in a first-degree shortage are worrying,
and in a second-degree shortage one might expect a dramatic rise in prices
with no improvement in distribution.